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Twitter and Facebook Wield Little Influence on TV Watching

Neil Patrick Harris performing at the Emmys last fall. Live events like the Emmys can still draw significant chatter on social media, especially on Twitter.Credit Mike Blake/Reuters

Listen to executives at Twitter and Facebook talk about how we watch television and you might walk away thinking that Americans are chattering nonstop on the social networks while watching their favorite shows.

The reality is that most of us don’t tweet or post at all while we’re plopped in front of the tube. When we do, half the time we’re talking about something other than TV. And social media conversation is far weaker than traditional factors, like TV commercials for new shows or our sheer laziness in changing channels, in prompting us to tune into each season’s new offerings.

Those are among the crucial findings of a new study released Thursday by the Council for Research Excellence, a Nielsen-funded group that does in-depth research on how Americans use media that is shared with its member broadcasters, advertisers, publishers and social media companies.

The council surveyed 1,665 respondents, ages 15 to 54, who were selected to be representative of the online population. The participants used a mobile app to report any time they saw, heard or communicated something about prime-time TV shows over the course of 21 days last fall, as the new season’s lineup of TV shows made their debuts.

Only 16.1 percent of the survey respondents said they had used social media while watching TV during prime time. And less than half of the people using social media were actually discussing the show they were watching.

Facebook was by far the most popular social network for people chatting during shows, used by about 11.4 percent of TV watchers, compared with 3.3 percent for Twitter.

The research findings contradict the notion — peddled heavily by Twitter and Facebook in their pitches to producers — that conversations on Twitter and Facebook are a big factor driving people to tune into TV shows.

“Social media did have an impact on viewing choice, but it was still relatively small compared to traditional promotion,” said Beth Rockwood, senior vice president for market resources at Discovery Communications, who is the chairwoman of the research group’s social media committee.

Only 6.8 percent of the respondents said that something on a social network pushed them to tune into a new prime time show.

Nearly 40 percent of respondents said TV commercials for a new show prompted them to tune in, and about one-third said they watched because it was a program they already watched regularly.

Even the couch potato factor was more important than Twitter or Facebook: About one in 10 people said they checked out a new show because it was appearing on the channel they were already watching.

The researchers did find some groups that were big into social TV chatter. Generally, women, Hispanics and people aged 25 to 34 were more likely to watch and post. Male, Asian and black viewers, as well as people aged 45 to 54, were less likely to chat about social TV.

Also, the council said that about 22 percent of the whole survey group were “superconnectors,” defined as people who actively follow shows and actors on social media and comment or interact with them several times a day.

Those superconnectors were significantly more active on social media than other people, suggesting that advertisers and TV producers might want to find ways to better target those people with their social media promotions.

“The superconnectors are an important group to think about,” Ms. Rockwood said.

And live events, like awards shows, drew more social media chatter — an area that Twitter views as a particular strength.

“The Emmys were a real standout in the period we were surveying,” Ms. Rockwood said.

A version of this article appears in print on 04/14/2014, on page B6 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Social Media Not So Influential on TV Habits.